Long Beach Jewish Film Festival

It’s billed as the “world’s smallest film festival,” although it has grown by 20 percent in the last couple of years — from four to five films.

The Long Beach Jewish Film Festival started Thursday and runs through the weekend at the Alpert Jewish Community Center.

“It’s small in size, but big in heart,” said Susan Paletz, director program development and community engagement for the AJCC. “And we are growing.”

The three-day festival kicked off with the 2012 documentary comedy “Hava Nagila” by director Roberta Grossman. The festival continues Saturday night with “The Flat,” a 2012 Israeli documentary about a filmmaker who brings his cameraman along to clean out the home where his grandparents had lived. What they discover leads to a bizarre story that involves a Nazi journalist’s report from pre-war Palestine. The documentary screens at 7:30 p.m.

Sunday’s final three films include “God’s Fiddler,” starting at 10:30 a.m., a 2011 documentary about Jascha Heifetz, a legendary violinist who was idolized by other violinists. It’s followed by “Suskind” at 2 p.m., a 2011 Dutch film about a Jewish man who was made the liaison to the Nazis in the Netherlands.

Lastly, the festival closes with “Putzel,” a 2012 comedy set in New York that follows Walter, a young man with problems who is obsessed with taking over his uncle’s Manhattan deli. It screens at 7 p.m.

More than 30 films were viewed to reduce the list to the five films, Paletz said. The selected flicks all had to meet a set of criteria such as being entertaining, with good acting and strong direction, as well as contain some form of Jewish content.

The festival started about eight years ago with four films.

Paletz is expecting more than 100 people a day with a bit more on Sunday for the three films.

“Our goal is to reach out to the community and expose them to films they wouldn’t necessarily see and expose them to some Jewish culture,” she said.

About the Author

Richard Guzman covers Arts and Entertainment for the Long Beach Press-Telegram, where he writes about art, theater, music and food. He is a graduate of CSU Northridge with a degree in journalism. Richard grew up in Los Angeles and has written about food, pop culture and art in the area. He has two young children and in his spare time enjoys riding his motorcycle and hiking. Reach the author at riguzman@scng.com
or follow Richard on Twitter: @Richword.